Gluten-Free Pasta with Crab, Citrus & Fresh Greens

We clearly eat some pasta at our house. Don't let the "O" and apostrophe in my last name fool you - this girl is Italian & her Irish husband is now too :) Well part Italian at least.

I'm always looking for new recipes to use with the staples I pick up at the grocery store. Yes, canned crab is one of those staples since there is only so much chicken & salmon we can eat.

I jazzed this recipe up with my gluten-free pasta & some fresh greens of course.

Click through for a citrusy take on crab & pasta. Yum.

Ingredients

• 1 lb canned crab
• 4 clementines, grilled, small diced
• 2 cherry peppers, diced
• 6 tb butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
• 2 tb lemon juice
• 1/2 cup pasta water
• 1 cup peas (thaw if frozen)
• 2 cups baby arugula (use organic if you can)
• salt & pepper
• 1 lb gluten-free fresh pasta

Make it!

1. Peel clementines & separate section, season them with a dash of olive oil and kosher salt.
2. Grill or saute clementine sections over low to medium heat for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side.
3. Once cool enough to handle, dice each halve into small pieces. Set them aside.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
5. In a large saute pan on low to medium heat, add the butter, water, and lemon juice until butter has melted and mixture has emulsified slightly. Add the diced clementines, diced cherry peppers, & half of the crab meat. Add additional water if the mixture looks a bit dry. Cook on low heat.
6. Once pot of water is at a full rolling boil, drop in gluten-free pasta [http://heatheromade.blogspot.com/2013/02/gluten-free-homemade-pasta.html] strands & cook for about a minute. (If using dried boxed pasta cook until al dente probably about 8-10 minutes).
7. Stir peas into the crab mixture.
8. Remove pasta from water and drop into the saute pan with the warm sauce. Toss until pasta has been evenly coated.
9. If sauce reduces down too far and pasta has soaked up sauce, add some pasta water to the pan. That will help loosen the lemon butter sauce and it will also help the sauce adhere to the strands.
10. Add arugula & toss all the components together.
11. Season with salt & pepper if needed.
12. Portion out pasta into bowls and garnish each dish with the remaining cold crab meat

Note per Lemon Fire Brigade: The cold crab meat garnish on top of each portion adds a great temperature contrast to the dish. If garnishing the top of each pasta serving with crab isn’t desired, add the crab meat all at once into the saute pan when making the sauce.